Colorado Leaves The PAC 12: What You Need To Know
On Thursday, Colorado's board of regents announced the official move to the Big 12, in what marks an end to an awkward 12-year fit out west.
Buffaloes Get the Big Bucks, PAC 12 Struggles to Find a Suitor
The Buffaloes will enjoy a $31.7 million in annual rev share from the Big 12's television package. The PAC 12, however, is still yet to announce a TV rights deal of any kind. Frequently teasing a deal is nearing closure, the word from the PAC 12 has gone from confident to unassuring. Here's the statement they released after Colorado's departure:
“We are focused on concluding our media rights deal and securing our continued success and growth. Immediately following the conclusion of our media rights deal, we will embrace expansion opportunities and bring new fans, markets, excitement and value to the Pac-12.”
Not exactly confidence inspiring.
Colorado Might Have Company
Brett McMurphy, who originally broke the Buff's exit story on Wednesday, hinted that the Big 12 may not be finished. Here's what he said:
"(The) League will 1st seek others from Pac-12 to join. If none do so, Big 12 would add 1 Group of 5 (UConn, Memphis, SDSU or UNLV) to reach even number of teams in 2024"
Big 12 will add b/w 1 & 3 schools to join Colorado in 2024, sources told @ActionNetworkHQ. League will 1st seek others from Pac-12 to join. If none do so, Big 12 would add 1 Group of 5 (UConn, Memphis, SDSU or UNLV) to reach even number of teams in 2024https://t.co/j31J8IUMQN pic.twitter.com/rXcumkWoqn
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) July 27, 2023
A top rumored team to join Colorado is Arizona. San Diego State, seeing their own bid to leave FOR the PAC 12 fall through, may yet have an escape plan to find their way to a P5 conference.
Quickly Becoming the "MID 12"
The BIG 12 is banking on one of the new additions catching lighting in a bottle and being actually competitive on a national level. But until it happens, they're left with trading tremendous brand power of Oklahoma and Texas for quantity, not quality.
If Arizona ends up coming over with Colorado, then the combined 2022 record against P5 programs for the incoming programs to the Big 12 is 6-26.
2024 Playoff Expansion Framework Dead on Arrival
It was over before it began. An already unserious requirement that all P5 teams get auto-bids and first round byes to the top 4 becomes even moreso now that we're looking at the PAC 9 and the MID 12.
Are we really going to give an auto-bid and first round by to a team whose schedule is comprised of no P5s OOC, and 3-4 new teams who either had one winning season in 11 years in the PAC 12 or were literally G5s two years prior?
The SEC and Big 10 have all the leverage now, and the terms are about to look a lot different.
